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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Blowing up the asteroid won't do any good. You turn a solid slug into a cloud of smaller, but no less lethal buckshot with the same kinetic energy as the original whole.
You need to deflect them. To that end, you need to apply a thrust of some kind, whether it be blowing up a big bomb nearby, attaching rockets to them, or, more realistically, firing a big honking ass laser at them to generate ablative thrust.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"![]()
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It only works if they have a sountdrack by Aerosmith and is directed by he who I shall not name.
In any case, every few years someone in Congress calls a hearing like this. I remember in the late 90s, there was one such hearing, and basically boiled down to "well, we don't know what to do, so if this boils down to money, we need to know how much we need to throw at it."
NASA has been on the job for awhile.
I guess the hearing might just be seeing if NASA's come up with anything.
edited 15th Feb '13 8:01:56 PM by DevilTakeMe
Glove and Boots is good for Blog!Well, to an extent. Mass burning away goes by exposed surface area, so if you blow it into buckshot small enough, most of that kinetic energy disperses in the upper atmosphere before it does too much damage to the surface.
Still, it'd take considerably less firepower to just to blast it off course.
edited 15th Feb '13 8:03:06 PM by Pykrete
@Tentacles: Yeah, but there's really no feasible way to make sure all the chunks are small enough to safely burn up in the atmosphere. You're more likely to get a ton of debris large enough to cause damage like in Russia than anything.
"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian@Tentacles: That's true, but not useful. If the asteroid could destroy all life by slamming into the ground, it can still destroy all life by slamming into the air. The energy output is the same either way.
edited 15th Feb '13 8:03:48 PM by OhnoaBear
"The marvel is not that the Bear posts well, but that the Bear posts at all."@Fighteer,
Bruce Willis can do anything. Your science is invalid.
Senator McConnell advocates for bipartisan hemp bill
edited 15th Feb '13 8:06:13 PM by DeviantBraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016
Instead, you get a firestorm that burns everything for hundreds or thousands of miles. Not that much better if you think about it.
Well, the President's job is, at least in part, to showboat. Ritualized spectacle from the bully pulpit has become a part of his duties. That said, Scalia is probably right in that it's not his problem. While I would hardly call him apolitical, you won't find him playing politics.
Which is probably not a bad thing, since it means he's generally worth listening to, even if you disagree with him on everything.
Sure, if they do so through direct democracy. However, that is not to say that acceptable public dress should be followed blindly. People should have the right to object to that through the avenue of civil disobedience or to reject that the majority has the right to dictate what the minority can or cannot do. Pure majority rule is still rule, and liberty is not the freedom to rule others, but the freedom to have individual autonomy and decide what is best for yourself without being forced or coerced to do or act in certain ways by others. (Notably, this means that stuff like murder and theft are an infringement of liberty because they interfere with a person's individual autonomy.)
This is basic anarchist theory, btw. Civil Disobedience, as in the work by Henry David Thoreau, is actually an anarchist work and has influenced anarchists, such as Leo Tolstoy (aka the writer of War and Peace and a major historical Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist).
Also, I should note, I'd amend that to say "free and equal individuals" rather than just "free individuals".
edited 15th Feb '13 9:19:16 PM by deathpigeon
What do you mean? It'll never pass Congress, of course — it was doomed from the start. It does, however, provide the President with a great opportunity to showcase how hypocritical Republicans are on the matter
.
Opposing minimum wag tends to motivate the Republican Base.
The 'Minimum Wage' thing has absolutely no chance of passing.
CIA release 7 More Dead Bin Laden Pictures
edited 15th Feb '13 10:31:52 PM by DeviantBraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016

There there, maybe this meteor business will get them some more funding.
"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian